Skip to main content

Butterflies

 

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)

In a word, a Being who, from his infinite wisdom, cannot err or be deceived; from his infinite goodness, can do nothing but what is eternally just, right, and kind.

 The job I had before I took care of Dad was in the same store where my mother had worked for years. There were people who remembered her. They always told me how nice my mother was, and my response was, “Yes, she was very nice. I’m not like her.” I introduced myself to new employees as “The Wicked Witch of the West.” For a while, they believed me. It was great. One day, I did something that evoked a “That was gentleness” response. I don’t remember what it was, but I remember being dismayed. I remember that I even prayed about it- “Not gentleness, Lord, please, not gentleness.”

My understanding of gentleness has changed in the intervening years, but I have to laugh when people at my current job think I’m kind or nice. I don’t think I’ve changed. I think it’s that the atmosphere at the two businesses is different, but I could be wrong about myself.

God often works in us to develop the things we need most and want least and that brings us back to the question of whether or not we are going to choose to trust God. When God says “Gentleness” or “Patience” do we struggle with God, or with ourselves? Do we trust that it is a good thing that He has begun in us and that He is going to complete it? Or do we cringe and doubt? For me, there’s a pattern. Those things that are from God usually get a “No… no … no…no…no…no…no” reaction followed by a slow submission and an eventual acceptance or appreciation.

And, within the past half hour, I’ve been given an obvious parallel. The little “worm” I have been caring for has emerged as a butterfly. When they form a chrysalis, they turn themselves into goo that eventually organizes into butterfly. Somehow, I doubt I would be too interested in undergoing such a process. When the butterfly e-closes (leaves the chrysalis) it has to struggle to escape what has been for as much as 20 % of its life, its home. To help it escape is to kill it. It’s hard to remember that we’re the caterpillar and that becoming a butterfly is our fate but it’s not necessarily pleasant to make the transition. We absolutely must grow wings and learn to fly.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more